In this episode of Notes from Big Trails, Rob speaks with Mel Sykes about completing the winter Spine Race — a 268-mile, non-stop race along the Pennine Way in January.

Mel talks about:

• What makes the winter Spine fundamentally different from long summer ultras

• Moving for days in darkness and learning to manage sleep deprivation

• Hallucinations, emotional swings, and the strange logic of extreme fatigue

• The Pennine Way as a place — hostile, boring, beautiful, and absorbing

• Small acts of kindness that land differently when you’re exhausted

• Why reaching Hadrian’s Wall and Cross Fell mattered so much

• The reality of finishing: relief, exhaustion, and delayed pride

• What events like this teach you — and what they’re often misunderstood to be about

This is a conversation about endurance, attention, and keeping going.

Read more about Mel's Spine Race here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gz2e12387o

https://www.baldhiker.com/the-spine-race-adventures/

Plan your own recce with Big Trail Adventures.